What is the statutory minimum holiday entitlement?

October 23, 2014

Paid annual leave is a legal right that an employer must provide. Almost all workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday per year (known as statutory leave entitlement or annual leave). An employer can include bank holidays as part of statutory annual leave.

Self-employed workers aren’t entitled to annual leave.

Most workers who work a 5-day week must receive 28 days’ paid annual leave per year. This is calculated by multiplying a normal week (5 days) by the annual entitlement of 5.6 weeks.

Part-time workers

Part-time workers are also entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks of paid holiday each year, although this may amount to fewer actual days of paid holiday than a full-time worker would get.

For example a worker works 3 days a week. Their leave is calculated by multiplying 3 by 5.6, which comes to 16.8 days of annual paid leave.

Statutory paid holiday entitlement is limited to 28 days. Staff working 6 days a week are only entitled to 28 days’ paid holiday and not 33.6 days (5.6 multiplied by 6).

Bank holidays

Interestingly, employers do not have to give bank holidays or public holidays as paid leave. An employer can choose to include bank holidays as part of a worker’s statutory annual leave.

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